Haha sorry I apparently stopped somewhere. I think it has been recognized, the chip odds for the Rox has been consistently top three in the west, behind only GS and OKC (which improved significantly from last year imo). If stars are aligned (all healthy, the defensive coach working again, 1-2 strong buyout helps, DH back etc etc), we might have a better chance. Your point is fair. The problem is that stars rarely are aligned, and sushi hits the fan all the time. As a contemporary Rockets fan I've learned to be more cautiously pessimistic than cautiously optimistic. Given the tight constraints DM is operating against, I'm content with the mini-upgrade we had today. It's up to the coaching staff to manage the schedule to get back the squad at full strength for a deep run, and it's up to the team to opt in defensively consistently. We'll see.
Well we have the best player on the planet so anything is possible. But realistically, regardless of the role players, Chris Paul is going to have to show up. If he’s a star, you have a chance.
*If Healthy* At this point screw seeding, just get everyone on their feet. I don't even care if we get the Warriors in Round 1. We gotta beat them sometime, may as well do it before they get their Play-off groove on.
Last year's team was lightyears ahead of this year's team. Not even close, and that's going to be the difference for us in the playoffs. We'll see what happens, though.
Finally a good/real thread !! Haha, I know it wasn't your fault on the other crazy threads but THANK YOU !! I mean between the trade Harden threads/gm wannabes/and completely clueless threads this is great!
The koolaid slurping is real isn’t it? I remember reading Melo>>> , MCW >>> a couple of months ago too. Some people on here are a certain level of delusional
We haven't really "seen" this year's team yet. December 20 was the last time Paul, Harden and Capela played together. In that game, our 4 players off the bench were Green, Nene, House, and Knight, each with 18 minutes or more. This season is a rollercoaster. Don't know what's around the next bend.
Data isn't koolaid, you can't slurp it. You can only cover your eyes. This isn't a thread guaranteeing that we will win even a single playoff series. It's just proving that none of the current doom and gloom is factual. It's fabricated guesswork, just as good as this. If you have any factoids to justify a negative outlook on the current squad, you're welcome to enlist JC Denton to help you start a thread to combat this one.
All I remember is 0-27, Ariza's 0 points (0-12 FG 0-9 3PT), and this burning desire to douse my eyes with acid watching that game 7.
You really think posting a stat sheet there is irrefutable data? The thunder say hi after the 2012 finals. They did something similar and let Harden go largely due to his finals stats. Its an incredibly 1 dimensional way of looking at things. We could have taken MCW/Melo and argued that we got better with them (many did). What we lost in Luc/Ariza was not something on a stat sheet. Both were the glue for our defense much like Harden is for our offense
I didn't say a stat sheet is irrefutable data - but here's one thing it is: MORE valid than a rambling narrative. The burden of proof is on the people creating threads that the entire world is falling because their sports team didn't acquire the guy they wanted, my friend. Let me take another crack at @durvasa 's quip about Paul this year: Last year, Paul slightly elevated his points in the playoffs versus his season average. But you're not persuaded, because assists and a lot of other things matter. OK, Paul's assists dropped 41.8% to 4.6/game in the Warriors series. Let's go the pessimistic route. So let's look at Paul's numbers this season to get a baseline - (oh wow, he's only scoring 3 points less per game with the same number of assists! I didn't expect that. My narratives are letting me down!). We don't really have evidence to say he can't elevate his game in the playoffs this year, but let's go with that. Paul and Harden at their worst in the playoffs last year still gave you 47-8.8-10.6 per game. If we're just going to sit and say Paul is worse, why can we also not use the same counter-argument that Harden is better? If we take their regular season averages this year and apply their worst drops from last year, they give us 49.5-9.0-10.0 per game in the upcoming playoffs. Kindly note that is 2.5 points better than last season in the playoffs, combining their worst % drops all at the same time. But fine, let's call it a wash. At that point it's up for the role players to make up the difference versus last season. If you don't think Rivers/Faried/House(hopefully) are better than Johnson/Anderson/corpse of Moute, I can't agree. Stop using Moute as an example, he wasn't relevant in the playoffs. And ain't nobody talking about MCW. Blah blah, while you're reading this you're just thinking of your next quip about how I'm a rosy-glasses idiot. Fine. If we can't predict the future, shut up with the substance-less whining.
I think what MOST people on this forum miss or forget is that we have NOT had a healthy trio of James, CP and Clint on the floor for any length of time. Either CP or (now) Clint have been hurt. We were MONEY, best in the NBA last year with basically the same crew. I truly believe if Clint were now healthy we'd be rolling, the Sixers game would not have been a blowout and we'd be a team to be reckoned with. We were what, 10-2 for a 12 game stretch before Clint got injured? And THAT was without CP! The missing piece we need is not waiting to be bought out, or traded. The missing piece we need right now is recovering from injury. STAY THE COURSE. We have to wait until our BIG 3 is back on the floor. Winning cures all
While I think we may have gotten marginally better. The reason everyone is down is because The Warriors got Boogie Cousins and Looney looks to have improved a ton and Iggy will be healthy this year. Not to mention they could also be players in the buyout.
That's a reason to be afraid of the Warriors. That's not a reason to cry a river on Clutchfans and start redundant threads about pain and devastation.
They were all playing in Nov/Dec with pretty mediocre results. But our bench has completely flipped since then. This change is getting too complicated for people to wrap their heads around though. It's simpler to just yell at Tilman because we didn't get Vucevic.
